Newcastle Win 2-0 – Go Top – 9 Points Clear Of 3rd

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

9:55pm Wednesday, December 14th, 2016

Commented 25 times

In what was another professional display form Newcastle United goals in each half by former Wigan star Mo Diame and Christian Atsu saw Newcastle through to a good win that takes us one point ahead of Brighton at the top of the Championship and 9 points ahead of 3rd placed Reading with a much superior goal difference.

It wasn’t an easy win but the lads got the job done tonight against a hard-working Wigan side.

Another win and other clean sheet – just what the doctor ordered.

Yoan Gouffran congratulates Mo Diame after first goal Mohamed Diame put Newcastle ahead against his former club on 26 minutes with a terrific goal as he combined well with the impressive Isaac Hayden before beating former Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen with his shot.

Mo is coming into some good form in the last couple of games and after the goal Newcastle took complete control of the game in that first half with the score still 1-0 at half time.

But Newcastle didn’t have it all their own way after half time and in the first 20 minutes of the second half Wigan pressed hard for the equalizer.

On 66 minutes there was a huge opportunity for sub Andy Kellett to level the scores but it was Karl Darlow who made a great save to keep the score 1-0.

That was a key save from the Newcastle goalkeeper.

And then shortly after that – after 69 minutes – Rafa brought on Ghanaian International winger Christian Atsu for Matt Richie on the right wing.

And it was just 9 minutes later – after 78 minutes – that Christian Atsu scored his 3rd goal of the season with a great shot.

That was the goal we needed and Newcastle had the game well under control and it was another win and another 3 points.

Just what we needed to go to 46 points from 21 games.

Derby won 1-0 at QPR with an 86th minute goal from Tom Ince for their 7th successive win and 5th clean sheet in a row to go to 5th place above Leeds United.

We’ll need to play a lot better than that to win on Saturday for sure. That second half was dreadful. I don’t think we made more than two consecutive passes the whole half. I’d expect a good few changes for Saturday.

And if you didn’t agree that Rafa doesn’t fancy Mitrovic – That Perez for Gayle substitution said it all.

Not worried at all about the lacklustre performance, every great team needs to show that they can win games like this. As I see it we didn’t even need to get out of 2nd gear so it’s positive that we can win games like this, especially as it conserves energy over a very busy festive period. All in all a well deserved 3 points and a nice stride towards promotion.

Why would Rafa leave? He’s been to big clubs, he’s won trophy’s, and now he has a nice little project, something he can (if he is allowed too) build with his own hands, a showpiece in the making, the sleeping giant has stirred and popped one eye open.

Rafa ain’t leaving, not as long as the fat man and Penfold keep backing him, and allowing him to build for the future.

I’d be very surprised if the third place team catches us now. I’m usually quite cautions like, but it would take a really piss poor run for it to happen. Think Derby have won seven games on the spin now though. So i’ll still be looking over my shoulder at them lol

League Placement

health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

The cancer spread in the bones but it has been stabilized and has not spread further.

I am still recovering from some of the side effects of the chemo treatment - it's mainly severe fatigue and exhaustion.

Stage 4 cancer is not curable so I will continue to have cat scans and bone scans every four months to ensure the cancer is not spreading.

It is as it is - these things happen - and I will do my very best under the circumstances.

Ed Harrison

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